|
|
|
|
The last tonnaras
In Sicilian and Sardinian last tonnare, the ancient mattanza rite, a
traditional tuna-fishing technique, still exist. Every year at the end
of springtime huge tuna migrate from the Atlantic Ocean to the warmer
Mediterranean waters. These fish can reach the weight of 400 kilos and
they are captured and loaded on board of the boats using only the
fishermen's arm strength. Colossal nets are hoisted by hand under the
supervision of the Rais, the supreme chief, and the fishermen tune up
ancient songs while the sea turns red with tuna's blood and is tossed by
their last pangs of life. It is a remaining of an archaic world that is
now difficult to understand; a world where tradition and religion,
struggle for life and search of wealth, love and death were mixed up.
This is undoubtedly a cruel fishing technique, but an extremely
selective one, and probably for this reason it is also much less
detrimental to the environment than trawling or than spadare.
|
|
Mattanza is the bloody final act of a preparation process which lasts for months
and has remained unchanged for centuries: its origin goes so far back in
time that it is lost.
Even the traditional songs that are sung during
fishing are so old that have become partially incomprehensible to the
very fishermen.
Tonnare are complex fixed-net systems a few kilometers long (and their
plants for the fish processing). There were hundreds of them in the
Mediterranean sea until the first half of the XX century, but now, due
both to the diminishing number of tuna caused by pollution and intensive
fishing, and the market laws that have made this fishing technique less
and less cheap, there are only about ten tonnare left in the whole
Mediterranean sea.
Two of them still struggle to survive in Sicily: Bonagia's (not far from Trapani) and Favignana's, as well as Carloforte
in Sardinia.
|
|
|
|
The Northern bluefin tuna (thunnus thynnus) holds an almost mythic position
among the world's pelagic fish.
Aristotle described the migratory and
reproductive habits of tuna in his treatise History of Animals,
written in 350 B.C.
The Phoenicians and Carthaginians stamped their coins
with an image of a bluefin tuna.
In the first century A.D., Pliny the Elder
prescribed various parts of the tuna as homeopathic remedies for human
ailments.
In more recent history, Arabs, Spanish, and Italians have
incorporated tuna not only into their diets, but also into their poetry,
music and culture.
|
Like salmon, bluefin tuna are
migratory fish that return annually to their original spawning grounds.
The
Northern bluefin, which lives throughout the Atlantic, spawns either in the
Gulf of Mexico or in the Mediterranean.
A bluefin that spawns in the
Mediterranean will spend its spring in the north along the Spanish and
French coasts, then head southeast toward the warmer waters of North Africa
and Greece, then return to the Atlantic Ocean after spawning season has
completed.
A bluefin takes 5-8 years to reach maturity, after which it will
return to the spawning ground where it was born. The Northern bluefin's
predictable spawning pattern is critical to the mattanza.
|
 |
|
|
Mediterranean Bluefin Tuna Trancio in Olive Oil
We're talking about Mediterranean Tuna (thunnus
thynnus), the most prized species, also called Bluefin Tuna (or, in Italian,
"Tonno Rosso").
It's fished in the so called "rush" phase, that is, when
it's almost at the end of the long migration that takes it towards the
warmest waters for mating.
It's at this stage, and not after mating, that it
is possible to glean the best and nutritionally richest tuna meats.
Ventresca is the most tender part of the tuna, it's taken from the tuna's
belly.
|
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
TangoItalia - Food Wine Travel in Italy - Home
|
